Secure Sections

What is the security module used for?

Page Security allows you to set permission for sections, pages or even whole sites forcing the user to authenticate to gain access to that content.

This is perfect for securing an area of your website, creating extranets or specific areas for partners or staff, for example, securing a section of the site for dealers to store pricing not to be seen by the general public.

 

Securing a particular page by giving authorisation to a certain group will allow only a logged-in member of that group to see the page. Security cascades through the site and also applies to "children" of the secured page, making it easy to secure whole sections of your website from one, easy-to-use interface.

 

The site administrator configures groups. Users are then added or removed from groups as required. Pages can have group permissions applied for viewing and editing at the same time as the page content is updated.

 

 

The Security module allows the administrator to control what content is seen by which users. One of the primary uses of secure pages is to hide commercially sensitive information from casual visitors. Creating user accounts for your customers, suppliers, staff or other groups that require access to secure information, asks them to authenticate with the site using their login and password. Then the secure sections will be viewable.

 

The other key use of security is to restrict particular content managers to certain areas. For example the administrator may allow marketing personnel to maintain the whole site while restricting sales staff access to the product pages and HR people to the careers section. This allows you to distribute ownership of various sections to the right area of the business ensuring the content is correct and the workload shared among differing content creators.

 

 

The administrator can determine if secure pages are shown on the menu or hidden from casual visitors. In this example the menu on the left demonstrates what a casual visitor would see. The menu on the right shows how an authenticated sales agent would see the menu. Note the additional Agent Pricing option that appears once the visitor is logged in.

 

Showing and hiding menu options based on user security
The Anonymous visitor sees only the three sub-menu options available to all visitors. The secured sections are hidden from view.	After login, the sales agent will see everything the anonymous visitor sees but also the secure Agents menu.
Showing and hiding edit options based on security
The edit options are hidden from unauthorised visitors. This allows you to give certain users the ability to edit specific areas of your site.	Once the visitor authenticates, edit options are shown on pages they are authorised to edit. The edit links will appear and disappear as the visitor navigates from section to section based on defined access.

This combination of secured pages for viewing and editing by particular visitors gives you complete control over who can see what content and also who in your team (or external organisation) has the ability to maintain areas of your site.